a tribute to marty o, Martin o hagan was the first journalist to be murdered in the course of the 30 years of the troubles in northern ireland, to most people, who had never encountered marty o, he appeared to be just another hack, on the trail of watever news worthy headline grabbin story, nothin cud be further from the truth, marty o was a man wif a mission, a man as fearless in life as he was in death. Andy Pollack editor of the left wing belfast magazine fortnight said of marty o,'he was anti-establishment, totally unsectarian and wif a great sense of humour', and this is my experience of Martin too, a down to earth fella wif no airs or graces and resilience to match. who wud hav thought that Martin cud hav been shot dead. The question remains why?, was martin o hagan murdered. Stories in the press that he had crossed the LVF narco terrorists for too long circulated and remain the medias main explaination of his murder, on the surface this appears to be the motive, but on closer examination, we learn that Martin o hagan, had been on the trail of a story, the story that wud seal his fate. the story marty o was workin on, was the links and contact between Billy wright the LVF leader, a top RUC pig and one of the main players in the drumcree siege an orangeman, all of whom had supplied Billy Wright wif alibis for the times of murders of catholics, in the notorious mid ulster murder triangle. David Ervine, leader of the PUP said on the spotlight tv proggrame,'we hav to look at who created the LVF, the state created the LVF'. The security forces of the state turned a blind eye to the hard drug dealing activities of the LVF and UFF becos, these people the LVF and UFF, provided the security forces wif information on left wing groups and left leaning political parties, who the state believed were a greater threat to the status quo than drug dealers. The state also passed on photos and information on their suspected targets, whether they were catholics, left wing activists or whoever the state required eliminated at that particular time, to the LVF and UFF. we have to realise at this time in the troubles, wif the exposure of the security forces 'shoot to kill' policy, the security forces had no option but to provide Loyalist terrorists wif the info and help to continue this practise becos they the security forces cud no longer operate the shoot to kill policy themselves. Marty o Hagan stumbled on one story he wud not live to tell, and in the shadowy world of the state operatives his murder was justifiable, to cover their tracks, to cover the truth of the close connection of the LVF and their paymasters the british security services whose dirty war in the year 2001, remains as dirty as ever.